Amygdala Hijack

In my work life, it was deadlines. Ah, deadlines. The sound of them whizzing by in the morning. Stress inducing.  And faced with stress, which of your multiple personalities comes to the fore:  your parasympathetic self or your evil amygdala? I suspect, more often than you wish, it's an "amygdala hijack" and the result is not pretty.

Tony Schwartz, in the Harvard Business Review, warns that you need to be aware when your amygdala is at work versus your prefrontal cortex. Your parasympathetic system presents as logical, reasoned, and objective, calmly discerning fact from fiction, considering evidence, and making a cool judgment. Your evil twin the amygdala thrusts you into hurried thinking, hasty decisions, and fight or flight responses. Your perceptions become myopic and emotional. It's called the Survival Zone and your prefrontal cortex shuts down.  Never been there?  You might have a career in motivational speaking - or sainthood.

The amygdala is of course a necessary part of your emotional makeup. It is there to detect and react to threats. Like the sabre-tooth tiger bearing down on you. But these kind of threats are now quite rare and unfortunately the amygdala cannot distinguish between life threatening situations and an insult - or an unrealistic deadline.

The Energy Project studies how you can move from the Survival Zone to the Performance Zone, where you are capable of being your best.  And their bottom line is - "Whatever you feel compelled to do, don't. Compulsions are not choices, and they rarely lead to positive outcomes."

Although it can feel cathartic to let my amygdala rule, I almost always regret it. When your time comes, count slowly to ten and consider Mark Twain's words: "Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."

Would that our public figures could discover their parasympathetic side.

Copyright © 2019 Dave Hoplin

Philosopher for Hire

Aristotle rolling his eyes

It's hard to get a job as a philosopher these days. But it is the perfect profession for my retirement years. Sit around and think deep thoughts on the great questions and publish a tweet or a post on those thoughts - couple a year.  Truth, Beauty, Morality, Ethics, Spirituality .. and then a nice glass of hemlock in the evening.

There are of course university positions teaching philosophy, but they are simply rehashing hundred or thousand year old thinking.  I seek a job as a practicing, self-sufficient philosopher, like ... well, I can't think of anyone alive. Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Kant, Thoreau, William James, Bertrand Russell, Soren Kierkegaard, ...  all gone. Caveat - Elizabeth Anderson is pretty good.

So who will break new ground on the great philosophic questions? Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Is the universe real?  Is reality real? Do we really have free will? Can a human be objective? Is there universal basic morality? What is fact? ...

But before I take up that mantle, I've decided to pro bono address the "Tier 2 Great Questions", saving the "Great Questions" for a paying gig.

1. Over or Under?
Part 1: Definitely over unless you have a toddler or a cat. It is much easier to paddle down than up.
Part 2: The visual is gut-churning so suspenders seems the only plausible answer ... alternatively, buy a couple of those no-tuck-in shirts, XXL.

2. White or Brown?
Tradition says white. Contrarians say brown. But fundamentalists take their lefse with just butter. A lunatic group says fill it with lutefisk.  I am a traditionalist.

3. Pepperoni or Sausage?
Here I believe the biblical dietary laws serve us well, so veggie.

4. Tattoo or Piercing?
This is a test of your common sense.  In your twilight years, do you want to be sitting in the nursing home exposing your sagging butterfly or "I Love Linda" in a heart-arrow tattoo?  I think not.  Piercings are at least removable, but do please apply some common sense here as well. I hate that tooth clicking.

5. Red or Blue?
Empirical evidence personally gathered over many years shows that color has little or no effect on the flavor of M&M's.  So, pick 'em.

6. Parasympathetic vs. Amygdala?
While the amygdala is at rare times indispensable, you should always try to go with your parasympathetic side.

7. Hamburger or Hot Dog?
Hot dog, but only at a baseball game.

8. Ford or Chevy?
No way I'm getting involved in that blood sport.

9. Gene Kelley or Fred Astaire?
Who?

11. Baseball or Football?
See number 6.

Happy New Year

Copyright © 2019 Dave Hoplin

Bibliophile

Tis the season for "best of" lists. If you are a book lover, read on.

I am guessing Amazon pings you regularly with suggestions. But they use some algorithm based on your buying and browsing habits. Instead of relying on Amazon to tell you what you should read, try the Literature Map app:  https://www.literature-map.com/   This nifty little tool will identify authors with an affinity to those you like, the closer the proximity, the more similar.

I here offer you here some book recommendations based on actually having read them. This list is culled from what I read in 2018 although few if any of these books were written in 2018.  Of course, everyone has a different idea of what constitutes a good book. Just check a few critics. So, this list may ring hollow to you but perhaps you'll discover a new author that tickles your fancy. 

Forewarning:  I tend to read mostly fiction because ....  according to Harvard Business Review & Scientific American.  
"... we have known for a while that people who are most successful ... read fiction. And people who read fiction have more empathy, no matter where they land on the gender or personality trait spectrum ... and exposure to nonfiction correlates with loneliness and lack of social support."

All well and good but when it gets down to it, I read fiction because it can transport you to places and times you would never be able to visit or imagine. 

So here's my best of 2018 list - unranked, rather alphabetic by author name ..

The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure

An terrific novel about a clever architect who secretly devises ingenious hiding places for Jews in World War II Paris

Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson

The English language and how it got that way from the inimitable Bill Bryson.

Moonglow by Michael Chabon

A dying “my grandfather” tells his story to the narrator. Jewish slums of prewar South Philadelphia, the invasion of Germany, a Florida retirement village, a New York prison, the heyday of the space program ... collapsed into a single week. 

Work Song by Ivan Doig

A wonderful story set in Butte, Montana, the copper mining capital of the world in its Anaconda dominated 1919. 

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming

The first of the Claire Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne crime series. An Episcopal priest and an upstate New York sheriff. Ripping good yarns.

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

Harry Potter writer J.K. Rowlings using her alter-ego pen name Robert Galbraith and a curmudgeonly character, amputee private eye, Cormoran Strike. This is book #4 in the Cormoran Strike series. You might want to start with #1 The Cuckoo's Calling.

Alan Turing: The Enigma by Anthony Hodges

The biography of Alan Turing, British mathematician, founder of modern computer science, Bletchley Park cracker of the Nazi enigma code and tragic death by suicide at age 41.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

A black writer writing of the black experience in the south in 1930's America. "Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature."  The Florida hurricane segment is gripping.

A Legacy of Spies by John LeCarre

The sequel to A Spy Who Came in From the Cold (read or re-read that first) This is that same story from the MI5 administrator side of the house.

How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt

An examination of the history of the breakdown of democracies throughout the world and the relevance to today. 

The Coffee Trader by David Liss

Cornering the coffee market in Amsterdam in 1659. Modeled after the actual tulip mania and the Dutch financial crash in the 17th century.

A Man With One of Those Faces by Coimh McDonnell

Book 1 of the Dublin Trilogy. "The Troubles" crime story.  Entertaining, witty writing.

Kristin Lavransdatter: The Bridal Wreath by Sigrid Undset

Book 1 of the trilogy by the Nobel Prize winning Norwegian author. 14th century Norway.

The Free by Willy Vlautin

Three memorable characters: a brain damaged veteran of Iraq, a caring nurse and a care worker impoverished by medical bills working 2 full-time jobs.  " .. issues facing modern America, characters who are looking for a way out of their financial, familial, and existential crises". Inspires both compassion and admiration.

Consider the Lobster and other essays by David Foster Wallace

A collection of essays covering a variety of topics from John McCain's presidential run to a lobster fest in Maine.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

A poverty stricken Louisiana family trying to survive Hurricane Katrina.

Dirt Music by Tim Winton

Set in Western Australia. A broken man whose entire family were killed in a rollover accident and now makes his living as an illegal fisherman. Before the tragedy, he counted stars and loved playing his guitar. Now, his life has become a “project of forgetting.”"

Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin

Lutheran Blood Sport

In 1996, I attended a choral concert at Skoglund Center in Northfield, where the choirs of Augsburg, Concordia, Gustavus, Luther & St. Olaf all performed. The concert program was titled "F. Melius  Christiansen 125th Anniversary Concert". We in the audience, however, were fully aware of the true nature of the gathering - a battle of choirs, a.k.a. "Lutheran Blood Sport". (if the name F. Melius is not familiar to you, you're probably not a good candidate for this post.)

Most college rivalries are rooted in athletic contests. But we Lutherans leave that trivial pursuit to the Catholics: St. John's vs St. Thomas, St. Scholastica vs. St. Catherine's. We understand where the true test of excellence plays out: Concert Choirs on risers. While other schools batter themselves on the gridiron or the backboards, Lutheran schools do battle with hymns. "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence"; "Wake, Awake"; "Lost in the Night"; Randall Thompson's "Alleluia"; F. Melius' "O Day Full of Grace" ...

Audience listening in hushed silence with tears flowing. If you think Scandinavians are a stoic bunch, attend a choir concert. At concert end, the audience rises as one with rapturous cheers and clapping for their champions. No experience quite like a well tempered choir concert.

A Christmas gift to you. Experience it. Turn up the volume.

Click HERE for Kurt Bestor's "Prayer of the Children" composed in anguish over the genocide in Kosovo. Performed by the Nordic Choir. If this does not bring a tear to your eye, you should go back to your football game.

Can you hear the prayer of the children?
On bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room
Empty eyes with no more tears to cry
Turning heavenward toward the light

Crying Jesus*, help me
To see the morning light-of one more day
But if I should die before I wake,
I pray my soul to take

Can you feel the hearts of the children?
Aching for home, for something of their very own
Reaching hands, with nothing to hold on to,
But hope for a better day a better day

Crying Jesus*, help me
To feel the love again in my own land
But if unknown roads lead away from home,
Give me loving arms, away from harm

Can you hear the voice of the children?
Softly pleading for silence in a shattered world?
Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate,
Blood of the innocent on their hands

Crying Jesus*, help me
To feel the sun again upon my face,
For when darkness clears I know you're near,
Bringing peace again

Dali cujete sve djecje molitive?
(Croatian translation:
'Can you hear all the children's prayers?')
Can you hear the prayer of the children?

(*note: Originally, the song was written with the lyrics “Crying Jesus…” Bestor now recommends substituting the words “Crying softly…” enabling people to subconsciously substitute “Jesus, Allah, Yahweh, etc.” This way, the song's universal message of love will be felt without any barriers or limitations.) 

Read the Story Behind the Prayer of the Children.

Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin

A Minnesota Treasure

Unless you are a student (or a prof), you likely relate to the University of Minnesota through their sports teams. It is, perhaps unfortunately, the principal face of the University to the outside world. That said and although there are many problems with Division I college athletics, I too, am an avid follower of U of M teams. It is particularly satisfying to see to see the success of women's' sports.








But the treasure that is the University of Minnesota is not the athletic programs. It is so much more ...

You don't have to be an enrolled student to reap the benefits of one of the country's great land grant universities. The U of M was one of the beneficiaries of the 1862 Morrill Act that established colleges on federally controlled land throughout the country. The intent was to foster "practical education in agriculture, military science and engineering".  The U's administration building is named Morrill Hall to commemorate that legacy.

Maybe you have insatiable curiosity.  The U of M has a robust continuing education program (ccaps.mn.edu) which offers degree programs but also a myriad of enrichment classes for life-long learners. The Headliners series  offers distinguished speakers on a wide variety of topics once a month during the school year. The Learning Life program offers short courses on such a wide range of subjects, you will surely find something that touches you (see Minnesota Daily article).

Maybe there's a topic you'd like to know more about. The main University libraries (Walter Library & Wilson Library + numerous specialty libraries) are available to the general public. Check out the Borchert Map library in the basement of Walter - you'll be amazed.  There are almost always interesting exhibits to take in.  For example, you have until March 23, 2019 to see Mysterious Beauty: Photographs by Thomas Rose at the Architecture and Landscape Library in Rapson Hall. If you're interested in computers/information technology, check out the Charles Babbage Institute in the Elmer L Andersen Library. You might recognize the name Seymour Cray, a U of M grad, instrumental in making Minnesota the super computer capital of the world.


Maybe you like architecture.  Take a stroll through the campus and you will find the modern architecture of Frank Geary's Weisman Art Museum, the (for me) hard to like 'brutalist" architecture - Malcom Moos Towers & Ralph Rapson's Rarig Center.  The Architecture Building (Rapson Hall) designed by Steven Holl won the American Architecture prize for innovative design. The interior of Shevlin Hall is stupendous. And don't neglect the classical architecture of the University Mall.








Maybe you like honoring discoverers. Take a stroll down  the Scholar's Walk, honoring achievements of U of M professors and alumni.










Maybe you like art. Art is everywhere on the campus, indoors and out, from the Weisman Museum to the amazing stainless steel outdoor art of Julian Voss-Andrea.  And that's just a start. There are galleries all over the place.










Maybe you like statuary.  They're everywhere.  Just keep your head up as you walk around.










Maybe you like film or theater.  Northrup Auditorium hosts events that vary from dance, theater, film, authors to wrestling matches (see Takedown Northrup).

Maybe you like plays, dance or opera. The Rarig Center is home for University Theater and Dance.

Maybe you get sick.  The University Medical Center is world renowned and a leader in medical research.  The cardiac pacemaker was invented by Earl Bakken, a U of M alum.

Maybe your cat gets sick.  The University's Veterinary department is world renowned. And the Small Animal Hospital has an emergency room.

Maybe you are starving.  Agronomist Norman Borlaug won a Nobel prize for his work in developing hardy wheat plants that dramatically reduced world hunger.

Maybe you like music.  Nobel prize winner for Literature in 2017, Bob Dylan attended the U of M.

Maybe you like bookstores.  U of M has a good one in Coffman Union.






Maybe you want to do a self assessment. The MMPI - Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventory was developed at the U in 1943.

Maybe you like to walk in the rain.  Robert Gore invented Gore-Tex.


Maybe you like rappelling.  Try the Armory tower.











Maybe you breakfast on "food shot from guns". Puffed rice was invented by a U of M grad.

Maybe you got to this post through this link. The "Gopher Protocol", which introduced "hyperlinks", was the predecessor to WWW.


Maybe you like ice cream.  Can't beat Annie's Parlor in Dinkytown.

Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin

In Memoriam: Elwood Johnson

It is with sadness I report the death of Elwood Andrew Johnson.  Those of you with ties to Lowry will know the name.

Elwood died today, December 7, 2018 in Phoenix, AZ - but his heart was with Lowry, Minnesota
Born 18 Nov 1931 to John C & Nora Johnson, Elwood was 87.

Elwood was one of Lowry, Minnesota's biggest boosters. 

• He was the founder of the "Lowry Group", an adhoc collection of Lowry luminaries.
• He was the webmaster of the Lowry web page: lowrymn.com, a source for all things Lowry.
• He was the force behind the chronicling of the history of every Lowry residence and business. You can view the product of that work in the "Our Home Town" history. [a downloadable .pdf file]. It contains a photo and a genealogy of every building in the Village of Lowry - to the best of the compilers recollections. Elwood did all the photography. Elwood, Glenn Hoplin, Arnold Hedlin (and others I suspect) created the ownership lineage for each property.

Elwood worked for NASA for many years.  

  

From Charles A Biggs Oral History

We put together a team and designed the Apollo 11 van, for lack of a more sophisticated name, which housed the Apollo 11 spacecraft, the whole Apollo, and a lunar rock from Apollo 11. The sides folded down, and we could drive this thing then to the state capitols, open it up, and it would stay there for a few days, and the public would be invited to got through and look at it. Neil Armstrong's parents were deeply moved by the exhibit, and as Johnson described them, "salt of the earth people".

We took that van to fifty states, every state, and ended up going to Hawaii, flew it to Hawaii, and that was the last stop. It took quite a while.

Wright: Did you travel with it at all?

Biggs: No, I didn’t. We hired a good friend of mine [Elwood Johnson], as a matter of fact, to stay with it. Again, in NASA style, we were always on a pretty thin pocketbook. So he would put on his work clothes and set it up, and then he would take his work clothes off and put on his suit and then be there with the inaugural ribbon-cutting.

Read Elwood's NASA story on lowrymn.com HERE.


A fine man, greatly missed.

Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin

Petition for a Rename

Unless you are a civil war buff, you probably can't place the name John Pope.  But if you hail from Pope County, you may vaguely recall that the county was named for "someone", a railroad guy or a Civil War guy or ..?  I was born in Pope County and as I have read a boatload of Civil War history, I know of General John Pope's mediocre Civil War record and his subsequent posting to the Northwest Territories. As a result, I am envious of the naming history of neighboring Grant County and even Douglas & Stevens Counties.

The John Pope story is a dismal one ...

General Pope in Napoleonic pose

Like most Civil War generals, Pope earned promotion in the 1846 - 1848 Mexican-American war serving under General Zachary Taylor. In 1849 he was a member of Major Samuel Woods' exploration from Fort Snelling to Pembina passing by White Bear Lake, a.k.a Minnewaska.  (see Red River Ox Cart post). On the return to Fort Snelling, Pope led a party on a route that included a thorough examination of the Red River, traversing to Ottertail Lake, Leaf Lake and the Crow River and down the Mississippi to Fort Snelling.  "On the 27th of September, we arrived at Fort Snelling completing a voyage of nearly 1000 miles, never before made by anyone with a like object." Pope.  

In the 1850's he surveyed possible routes for a transcontinental railroad.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Pope was serving in the Missouri District under John Fremont. In 1862 Pope saw success at the Battle of Island #10 & seige of Corinth, Mississippi. He was promoted to Major General and called east by Lincoln to take command of the Army of Virginia, which he immediately denigrated in comparison to his lustrous accomplishments in the west. 

"Let us understand each other. I have come to you from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemies; from an army whose business it has been to seek the adversary and to beat him when he was found; whose policy has been attack and not defense." Pope

He soon discovered General Robert E. Lee and suffered a humiliating defeat at the 2nd Battle of Bull Run, when being engaged with Stonewall Jackson his army was outflanked by Lee and routed. 

Pope was little loved by the troops and compounded his unpopularity with the Army by blaming his Bull Run defeat on disobedience by Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter, who was court-martialed and found guilty and disgraced. 

In 1879, an investigation commissioned by Civil War veteran, President Rutherford B Hayes and conducted by General Schofield, concluded that Major General Fitz John Porter had been unfairly convicted of cowardice and disobedience at the Second Battle of Bull Run. The Schofield report used evidence of former Confederate commanders and "concluded that Pope bore most of the responsibility for the Union loss. The report characterized Pope as reckless and dangerously uninformed about events during the battle, and credited Porter's perceived disobedience with saving the Union army from complete ruin."

After Bull Run, the Army of the Potomac was turned over to General George McClellan and Pope was banished to the Northwest Territories (Minnesota) to deal with the Dakota Uprising of 1862.

In 1862, the Santee Sioux living near the Minnesota River were starving. Traders refused them food purportedly because the Congress had delayed an appropriation.  Trader Andrew J. Myrick notoriously turned them away with a shrug: "If they are hungry, let them eat grass." Little Crow led a brief, furious rebellion in the summer 1862 which became know as the Dakota Uprising.

Lincoln named Pope commander of the Military Department of the Northwest with orders to quell the rebellion.  Pope, in turn, issued orders to Colonel Henry H. Sibley: “It is my purpose utterly to exterminate the Sioux if I have the power to do so ... They are to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts.” Pope.  

The rebellion was brutally suppressed with Pope adopting a scorched earth policy against the starving Sioux.  Over 2000 tribe members were rounded up. At a trial in Mankato, 303 Sioux were condemned to death, most on flimsy or no evidence. Public outcry forced Lincoln to intercede and he reduced the list to 38, but, nevertheless, this was the largest mass hanging in American history, occurring on the day after Christmas, 1862, at Mankato. When Governor Alexander Ramsey complained that Lincoln would have preserved his popularity by hanging more Indians, the president responded dryly: “I could not afford to hang men for votes.”

After the Civil War, Pope continued his Indian fighting career in the Apache Wars and the Red River War (Texas/Oklahoma) which in 1874 saw the forceable relocation of the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Native American tribes from the Southern Plains to reservations in Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

So, whereas, as a former resident of Pope County and in lieu of John Pope's legacy of arrogance, ineptness and murderous behavior I hereby resolve that the embarrassing name "Pope County" be expunged and replaced with:

Vote for 1 

1.  Minnewaska County
2.  Pezhekee County
3.  Lowry County
4.  Halfway to Fargo County
5.  Gateway to South Dakota County
6.  (Write in) ________________


Sources
1. John Pope, Wikipedia
2. Lincoln's Generals - John Pope, Mr. Lincoln's White House
3. 1862 Dakota Uprising, History.com
4. Mass Execution, The Nation
5. Red River War, Texas History



Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin

Red River Ox Carts

Courtesy MN Historical Society

The earliest settlers around the area that would become Lowry, Minesota were Scottish. The townsite of Lowry was laid out in 1887 by the Soo Railway Company on land owned by Thomas Hume and Hugh Bryce who had settled in that part of Ben Wade about the year 1869. (See Lowry Pioneers post).

And although the Scandinavians and Bohemians now comprise a majority, Lowry still has remnants of those initial Scottish colonizers, most prominently members of the McIver family. The early Scottish settlers may have been drawn to the desolate prairies by an initiative of Thomas Douglass, 5th Earl of Selkirk. Lord Selkirk received a land grant from the Hudson's Bay Corporation and proceeded to establish the Selkirk Settlement which was to become known as the "Red River Colony", covering areas of southern Manitoba, eastern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota.  He then encouraged impoverished Scottish farmers to relocate to America.

"No Americans are to be accepted as settlers, but special inducements are offered to people from the highland of Scotland and some parts of Ireland, so that they will not be lost to the Empire by emigration."

The incentives being 100 acres of land, free and clear, after surviving 3 years. 

In the mid-19th century, this area was developing into a major wheat growing and flour production area. This, coupled with the Hudson Bay/Northwest Co. fur trade headquartered in Fort Garry (Winnipeg) and the establishment of Fort Snelling in 1821, presented trading opportunities to those willing to brave the hardships. There were no established roads, so 2 crude trails from St. Paul to Fort Garry - the "Woods Trail" & "East Plains Trail"- were carved out. A third, the "West Plains Trail" utilized the Minnesota and Red Rivers to Pembina and on to Winnipeg. The "prairie schooners" before the arrival of the railroads were ox carts transporting furs, flour and pemmican from the northwest to the Mississippi River steamboats.

From MNopedia: "The Red River cart was made entirely of wood. The only tools needed to build it were an ax and an auger. Rawhide, or wood found along the route, was used to mend breaks. The cart was suspended between two large wheels, each more than five feet in diameter. The wheels had spokes that angled outward from the hubs to the rim, which helped stabilize the cart.

When the wheels were taken off, they could be lashed together and, concave side down, used as a raft to cross water. When they were used on land, their squeal could be heard from miles away because they could not be greased; grease would mix with the trail dust and either stop the wheels from turning or wear down the axel. The axel supported the cart’s weight and, even without grease, wore out quickly. Travelers carried spare axels on their journeys; a typical trip from Winnipeg to St. Paul would require four or five."

Each cart carried up to 1,000 pounds and traveled an average of 20 miles per day. There were often 100 carts in a group and the sound of the groaning and creaking of the carts could be heard for miles. 

The "East Prairie Trail" paralleled the current Soo Line tracks and Highway 55. It forked from the "Woods Trail" at St. Cloud and went west to what is now Osakis and northwest to what is now Elbow Lake, passing very near what would become Lowry Minnesota. It ran parallel to the current Soo Line railroad line and state highway 55.  Continuing north, it linked back up with the Woods Trail west of Lake Itasca. Waypoints Fort Abercrombie (Breckinridge), Centralia (Fargo) & Le Grande Fourches (Grand Forks) owe their existence to these trade routes.

From Grace Flandrau book

The most prominent "ox-cart trader" was Norman Kittson, who has a Minnesota county named for him, but this trade brings me back to the Lowry Scots. Hugh Bryce farmed but also had a freighting business, delivering goods on the "Red River Trail" to Pembina, Fort Garry (Winnipeg) and other military outposts in the northwest. It is unclear what goods Hugh traded in.  

The teamster's life was not an easy one. From Grace Flandrau's book "Red River Trails" (published by Great Northern Railroad):  "As marathons of patience and endurance, these ox cart journeys are almost unequalled. Besides the difficulties common to all the routes: bad roads, absence of bridges, the peculiarly violent and often fatal thunder storms and cyclones common to the region at that time, and the devouring legions of mosquitoes which inspired the most impassioned eloquence in the contemporary writers ... the route east of the river which skirted the forests was pock marked with bottomless mud holes and in later years miles of corduroy jolted the travelers through tamarack swamps." 

Not surprisingly, when the Northern Pacific Railroad was completed to Moorhead in 1872, the ox cart trails quickly disappeared.

If you are northbound on 94 approaching Alexandria and need a rest, there is a historical marker at the rest stop just southeast of the Alex exit., 45° 50.235′ N, 95° 20.64′ W.  Also, I believe, if you are willing to search, there are remnants of the East Prairie Trail to be found near Fergus Falls.

Sources
1. Flandrau, Grace.  The Red River Trails, Great Northern publications
2, Red River Carts, MNopedia
3. Mankato Free Press archives
4. Red River Colony. Wikipedia Selkirk archive


Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin